Leaders of two Celtic supporters groups have both snubbed the chance to meet with Assistant Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police, Campbell Corrigan, to discuss fans' behaviour.
The Parkhead club are facing a UEFA charge relating to alleged "illicit chanting" from their fans during a Europa League game against Rennes and are also under investigation by the Scottish Premier League for alleged pro-IRA chants in a match against Hibernian.
Moves to bring resolution to the problem suffered a blow when the Celtic Supporters Trust and the Celtic Supporters Association refused to meet Corrigan. A CST statement read: "On Tuesday of this week we were advised that ACC Corrigan wished to have a meeting with all the supporters' organisations."
It continued: "With the exception of the GB (Green Brigade), we agreed to the meeting. On Wednesday we were extremely disturbed to find that there was inflammatory and misleading coverage of the proposed meeting.
"It gave the impression that we were being summonsed to discuss bad behaviour by Celtic supporters, it attacked our colleagues, the Green Brigade and it appeared to focus on singing.
"This is not what the meeting was intended to be about and it is not possible to have a constructive dialogue under these circumstances.
"Therefore we will not be attending the meeting with Mr Corrigan scheduled for Friday.
"However, we are a responsible supporters' organisation and we are always willing to enter into constructive dialogue with any organisation or individual in order to advance the interests of our members, of the Celtic supporters generally and of Celtic.
"For that reason we do not rule out future meetings with Strathclyde Police but these will have to be on the basis of mutual respect and an agreed and published agenda."
The Green Brigade had refused earlier in the week to meet with Corrigan, who pleaded with supporters not to indulge in the chants which have landed the club in trouble when they face Inverness on Saturday, a plea reiterated by manager Neil Lennon.
Source: PA
